Crimson and Bare
by Madness-and-Corona
Summary: Speak of Koh and she shall arrive. #TyzulaTuesday oneshot.


_**#TyzulaTuesday: Crimson**_

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 _crimson and bare as I stand_

 _yours completely_

 _yours as we grow older_

" _Cold" – Aqualung ft. Lucy Schwartz_

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 _start_

 _1_

"Tell me about her again," whispered the princess, her head resting on the lap of the weary looking woman beside her. She sounded like a little girl who wanted to hear the same bedtime story. "I keep forgetting."

Azula was changed, but not visibly. The sick power that was thrust upon her made her look less human, yet still beautiful. It was the crimson in her eyes, the nails that looked perpetually bloody, creepy up her hands and wrists more and more over time like knotted crimson vines. But you don't have to be a beast to be a monster, and Mai personally thought that Azula was an even more twisted being than her predecessor.

Mai was bored, of course. And perpetually exasperated. But she did not think she would leave Azula even if she could, despite the loathing Mai had for her. Maybe it was because Mai got Azula into this mess in the first place; maybe it was because Mai saw Azula take this to save Ty Lee from Koh. And succeeded. The first person who succeeded.

"I'm not telling you again. Ask her on the damned solstice," Mai said flatly. "You wanted absolute power. The face stealer is a bit more powerful than a Fire Lord."

 _This was most everyone's fault but Azula's._

 _She was right this time about that._

 _2_

Even the ugliest of things have an angle or moment or light in which they look beautiful.

That moment of light came for two days a year, during the shortest and longest nights. When the lines between the Spirit World and Mortal World blended to the point of lacking boundaries. More importantly, when a mortal walked into the Spirit World, they lost their bending and their connection to the mortal world. When a spirit left the Spirit World, they lost any power they had there.

Which is why most spirits preferred to stay inside of their home. One of them, however, did not choose to be a spirit, and coveted the mortal world. So she crossed over, expecting the same person to be on the other side. Along with her companion, her prisoner who faded enough that they will never be able to leave, even if they wanted to.

There were three people waiting at the private place, at a long abandoned tomb containing an altar to Agni. It was a dead religion.

"Be patient," softly said the wife, stroking her daughter's hair. It was the first year in which her little girl will even comprehend what is happening. The past two times, Izumi was only an infant.

The husband is silent.

It happened slowly, and in an uncomfortable manner. But when the guests arrived in a slow flash of crimson light like a dying red sun, the wife did not hesitate for a moment to run and seize her spirit and kissed her on the lips before she even registered where she was. The husband moved much more slowly to the silent woman, and when he moved to kiss her, he receives an embrace and a brief peck on his cheekbone instead.

 _Maybe it served him right that Azula stole Mai when Zuko stole Ty Lee._

"She looks so much older," was the first phrase spoken, by Princess Azula, addressing a woman she once loved enough to destroy the most powerful beings to save her life. A woman she still loved. "Hello."

The toddler looked for someone to cling to, but there was no one close, so she clung to herself.

"Let's go," Ty Lee said softly, breaking away from Izumi too quickly. Mai tried not to judge her for making the child's lip tremble with scared tears. And so Mai walked to the little child to awkwardly console her as Ty Lee grabbed onto Azula and went to go walk amongst the flowers.

The moment Azula and Ty Lee arrived outside of the tomb and into the surprisingly well maintained courtyard, Azula took Ty Lee by the waist, digging her crimson, dead nails into her tether and moved to crush their lips together. But Ty Lee held up one hand and stopped the spirit, the princess, the monster, whatever she was.

"I miss you. You're going to have to sweet talk me into screwing you in the middle of a gross courtyard," Ty Lee said and Azula was very far from used to being spoken to in any way but terror, humility and emotionlessness.

"Now really… I'm used to getting everything I want," Azula purred. She just was not used to not being able to take this.

She could. She could live a thousand lifetimes with Ty Lee there, but it would destroy her in half a second. Ty Lee did not have the resilience of Mai and did not deserve to live in fear.

Even if Azula harbored many countless fantasies about murdering her brother and stealing away his wife.

"So am I," Ty Lee whispered and Azula could see blood on her neck again. It made the princess surge with panic despite her soft laughter.

"Come on, it's cold out, don't you want to be warmer?"

Crimson and bare Ty Lee stood, and she was Azula's completely.

 _3_

 _If only_ were the two saddest words ever spoken. If they had never been invented, maybe a few hearts would be less rubbed raw by wanting and not having. Azula was supposed to have all she asked for, but all she had was an empty crown and an empty body.

She wished there was something she could have done. But was there? But was there?

No. No there was not because this was the price she paid to get the things she could not receive. She should have known that to be feared was better than to be loved and she would have been happier if she had not let this happen.

What was Azula to do anyway? Just let herself lie derelict and stained crimson from her own blood and turn the grass redder than the flag, redder than her rage. But, no, rage was blue. Rage was always blue.

"She's grown up beautiful," Azula said quietly, announcing herself from the shadows.

It made Zuko jump about ten feet. "Was that a compliment?" he at last asked, after his fear. Reasonable fear, perhaps.

"Somehow, you made a pretty baby," Azula said and Zuko knew that tone. Zuko did not like that tone because how was he supposed to say, _I couldn't stop her from leaving you; that was your fault._

"Maybe she'll come… next year," Zuko said so weakly that Azula wanted to shake him to death. But she was not one would call _powerful_ outside of the Spirit World. Maybe that little child who kept smiling, clueless about the girl on the dusty throne of the tomb would be devastated by losing her daddy.

"Of course. And father will tell you he has always been proud of you and send us flowers," Azula said coldly as she gazed at the stained glass adorning the stone walls. It was all shades of red, but the blood from the humans devoured by the dragons was bright crimson and somehow shone despite the longest night of the year.

Azula was proven wrong just in time. Speak of Koh and he shall arrive which was a poor choice of words. The door opened and light footsteps hesitantly entered. They echoed.

Ty Lee looked up and saw Azula on a throne that did not belong to her, the light from the stained glass illuminated by the moon tinting her skin the color of blood. It was so fitting.

"You decided to come?" Azula asked and Ty Lee wrung her hands.

"Just for a few minutes," Ty Lee said softly. She wore such regal clothes. Red was not her color; pink always was. Azula's vision flashed with the image of blood soaked pink fabric and then banished it. "I couldn't stay away."

"Well, you succeed admirably for the past three years." Azula scoffed.

Ty Lee didn't say anything. "I'm not going to apologize to you again."

"I never asked for one," Azula said and the small whimper of a tired toddler by the name of Izumi echoed through the room, interrupting their unrelenting locked gaze. "Does that child need something?"

"It's ruined!" wailed the little girl. She held a paper doll, which were such awful toys for a novice firebender. It was lightly scorched. The emotion in the room made her scared and Azula hoped Ty Lee felt stronger regret than she did.

"Will you go for a walk with me?" Ty Lee asked softly and Azula looked up at Mai, whom was leaning against the wall and looking as bored as usual.

"You can," Mai said, even though she knew the look from her sole companion was not asking for permission. Azula never bothered with that kind of thing.

Azula stood up and she was half bathed in crimson and half bathed in shadows.

She strode across the room and took Ty Lee forcefully by the hand.

They walked, hand in hand, which was startlingly unromantic, through the flowers of a hundred shades of red. Ty Lee plucked the lightest colored one and it was pale and innocent compared to her clothes.

"Are you cold?" Azula asked with no idea why she did.

"I want to live a thousand lives with you," Ty Lee whispered urgently, and Azula stared at her.

"I'm cold. Are you?"

 _4_

The flowers were too red. They looked like blood and Azula hated them for that.

"I have no idea why you thought it was important to come here. She's obviously not showing up," Mai said too calmly.

Azula glanced up at her and wanted to say quite venomous words, but she just took one last glance at the flowers that looked like blood blossoming around a memorial marker.

"It's cold," she decided to say instead. "Let's go home."

 _end_


End file.
